Ardelle HOOKINS (Tree I)

Ardelle HOOKINS was a renowned flautist and in some articles is described as "the legendary Ardelle HOOKINS". She studied with George BARRERE - reputed to be the best flautist in the world at the time - when she was only 12 years old at the Chautauqua Institute. She was one of the youngest flautists in the world in 1931 and was considered too young to travel on her own so required a chaperone. She was a member of The Hookins Entertainers Deluxe with her father and brothers and performed lunch and dinner music at the Athenaeum Hotel in New York. Barrere insisted that she complete high school before entering the Institute of Musical Art so she auditioned for William Curtis at Kincaid at Curtis. She spent 6 years as the only woman in the Curtis wind department, graduating in 1934. Later she played in the Boston Women's Symphony under Ethel Leginska.
Ardelle was born in 1913 in Oil City Pennsylvania, one of 2 sisters and 3 brothers born to Frank and Mable HOOKINS. She married Arthur Donald BOWERS IN 1938 and they had 4 children. She was then known as Ardelle HOOKINS-BOWERS. Ardelle pre-
deceased her husband in 1995 in Mooretown New Jersey at the
age of 82 years.



Ardelle is pictured her with Georges BARRERE at the Athenaeum Hotel in 1925